Calling all nurses and ex-nurses.

[bauble99]

If you're not still practising. Do you miss it?

I have four children, a relatively new business and bugger all time - but I've just emailed a private gynae/fertility practice who put out an ad in our local paper for part-time RNs with gynae experience.

I really miss nursing. Shall I apply to be on a 'Be an NHS Nurse' advert somewhere for Patricia Hewitt.

I really miss it.

Will someone who's still in the thick of it remind me how stressful it can be? Please. And I will take off my rose-coloured spectacles.

[wrinklytum]

Hi Bauble!,
Much respect to you-4,nay,4 kids,your own business and you want to go back to nursing!!!!I have 2 (little uns though,3+1) and struggle with 16 hours pt nhs work!!!(Though I do enjoy it)

I think it wholly depends on where you want to go back to.I work in a very busy speciaalism in hospital based nursing and boy is it shortstaffed and busy,however,am dreaming of a practice nurse job one day.(though sure this can be busy too) or a clinic job with regular hours!!!

Good luck, whatever you decide.

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

Hello, I hate nursing, have hated since 6 months before I qualified 7 years ago, it's stressful, thankless and quite frankly, it's driving me insane, in the very real sense of the word. I have to go back to work 3 nightshifts with 3 small children. I can't afford not to and I can't afford to change jobs. How's that?!

[tiredemma]

oh god, dont put me off.

im a 1st yr student nurse, posts like that last one make me feel ill!

is it really that bad?

[Sugarfree]

I'll post what I think in the morning when I get up at 5.30 for my shift shall i?

[Posey]

I love love love(d) being a nurse. Did it for 10 years. Only stopped because I wanted to be a SAHM and besides dh also did shift work so we would have really struggled to find suitable child care. I am now back at work, not in nursing because unfortunately jobs that are available for school hours only don't exist, or at least the ones with quite regular hours weren't what I wanted to do.
I found nursing hugely fullfilling. Yes stressful at times, but 90% of the time I loved it.
Good luck with whatever you decide.

[bauble99]

I'm being soppy and nostalgic, aren't I?

[christmosschops30]

yes when you work for the NHS you just get paid in shite ...literally

but then there are those days when old ladies kiss you and you've made their day because you've taken the time to wsh their hair or given them a bath

it all balances out in the end i love it

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

Sorry, I think I may have PND, and I'm the wrong kind of person for the job, I just wish I'd realised sooner.. There are some really great nurses out there, who work hard and are devoted, some people are just good at it. If you asked someone else, they'd say it was the best job in the world. I chose a very hard (emotionally) area for my first post and stayed 5 years, by then the last threads of hope for the job had gone! Sometimes, I feel really priviledged (sp?) to care for people, especially caring for the dying, but me being me, when people say thankyou, I think you're just trying to be nice and when people are rude and horrible, I think they're right. Like I said, I'm not the right person for the job! Anyway, Bauble asked to be put off!

[dorisofdevon]

Yup definitely nostalgic, things are only getting worse, again !!!!I work in acute admissions v sick patients crap staffing and sickness levels through the roof, I am leaving to be a SAHM ( left nursing once before to travel and missed it but def rose tinted specs) I am going to do either some NHS Professionals (?sp)or agency basically to maintain my registration and it'll be on my terms......

[christmosschops30]

hijack for sally

YOU WILL ...YOU WILL ..... YOU WILL

we all will then we'll get very drunk at our graduation ball and live happily ever after

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

tiredemma, i hope you are ignoring me, i always say this and yet continue to go to work.... there are some good elements as other people have said, you'll find your way, i'm sure you'll be fab! Good luck, also I've only ever had one student to share, any guesses why?!

[wrinklytum]

Oh, mammym,Im sure you are a great nurse.There are days I'm sure we have all come home and cried buckets,well,I have,and vowed never to go back,or screamed inwardly with frustration at the daily inadequacies of the nhs system.It is very hard if you are in an area that deals with a lot of death and dying.

[wrinklytum]

Chin up Sally,if you are in year 2 you are more than half way through now surely.You will do it!!!

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

sallystrawberry, you can access all sorts on your pc at home! Are you a member of the RCN? If not, join. you can download or order all of their back stuff, obviously you will probably also want other more indepth stuff, I've been out of education for ages and certainly not a graduate, but I think you can access all the library stuff at home, have you asked in the medical library? you should then be able to find exactly what you want and order or download it. Also, assignments always feel overwhelming, even if you haven't got it down on paper it'll all be 'up there' and it'll come together before you know it. Keep with it, it's too hard to stop now! If you're really struggling or it's getting on top of you, see your tutor (easier said than done I know) that's what they're paid for! (see I can be good when I want to be!)

[christmosschops30]

did you see my post about my assignment, it was totally annhailated (sp) by tutor, i was gutted although he tells me I can do it WTF!!!

you're not alone, I have to start all over again.

was the bloke in the library wearing a tank top, i cant go in there he makes me want to giggle. I'm not good in libraries either, or anything to do with trawling for literature on cinahl or other such crap, where you type in health promotion and it brings up articles on blind albino dwarves from outer mongolia who suffer from alopecia and play harmonica

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

LOL christmosschops. Bad news about the assignment but better to find out now surely?! Are you qualified and doing your degree?

[tiredemma]

i hate my uni library too sally- its full of trainee docs who look at us student nurses as if we are the dregs of society.

plus i can never find any relevant books and end up clearly aggravating the librarian by asking blindingly obvious questions.

[christmosschops30]

no i'm in the same year as sally at the same uni. pre-reg.

I wont let her leave, I'll hold onto her ankles so she cant get out the lecture theatre

[theposterformerlyknownasMammyM]

Silly question, did anyone actually show you two how to do a literature search? I know exactly what you mean about the albino dwarves eating crips (or whatever it was!) but I used to go to the library with my mate and we'd both be looking for the same stuff but he'd always find it much quicker because he 'knew' how to search and refine and stuff and I still don't and I'm a plebby grade 7 and he's a charge nurse

[bauble99]

Keep going Sal. You're over half way there now, aren't you?